Angels Pull It Out in Ninth

Maybe the Angels aren’t going to let the Seattle Mariners run away with the American League West after all.

After playing meekly for eight innings and coming within two outs of allowing the Mariners to take a three-game lead over them, the Angels rallied with three runs in the ninth inning Saturday to take a 7-6 victory before a sellout crowd of 43,536 at Edison Field.

Troy Glaus’ routine grounder that eluded third baseman Mark McLemore for an error allowed Eric Owens to score the winning run, touching off a wild celebration, as the Angels ended a two-game losing streak in emphatic fashion.

“If you can come back against one of the premier bullpens in our league,” Angel Manager Mike Scioscia said, “it’s something that feels good.”

Chone Figgins led off the inning with a single past shortstop Carlos Guillen, stole second and scored on David Eckstein’s single to pull the Angels to within 6-5. Eckstein took third on Owens’ single to right off Seattle reliever Kazuhiro Sasaki and came home on Tim Salmon’s bloop single over the head of first baseman John Olerud.

Owens went to third on a double steal to set the stage for Glaus, who delivered the winning run after Garret Anderson flied to right. McLemore might have had a play at the plate had he fielded the ball cleanly.

“It’s not an easy play,” Scioscia said, “but if he can glove it he’s going to be able to have a chance to get [Owens] at home.”

Francisco Rodriguez (2-1) picked up the victory with two innings of scoreless relief and Sasaki (1-1) took the loss after giving up four hits in one-third of an inning.

“We executed well the second half of that game on the offensive side,” Scioscia said. “That’s what you’re going to have to do to beat a club like Seattle and a bullpen like Seattle’s.”

Not all the news was giddy for the Angels. Starting pitcher Kevin Appier had to leave after two innings with tightness in his pitching elbow and said he “probably” would miss his next start.

Center fielder Darin Erstad had to leave in the fifth with an inflamed tendon in his right hamstring after extending his hitting streak to 10 games.

Both players will be evaluated today. Appier said his elbow had been bothering him since spring training.

“It was manageable for a while, but it got progressively worse,” he said. “I don’t feel it when I throw, but between pitches it barks. When I came in after that second inning, it was locked up pretty good.”

Appier, who limited Seattle to one run in six innings when he faced the Mariners April 9 only to hear accusations that he had doctored his pitches, was hammered for three runs Saturday, all in the second inning.

Ben Davis hit a run-scoring double to right-center in the second inning and the light-hitting McLemore followed with a two-run homer to right, his first of the season, to make it 3-1. Scot Shields replaced Appier to open the third and lowered his earned-run average to 0.56 while giving up three runs attributable to Angel errors. Mike Cameron reached with two out in the third after Glaus couldn’t get a handle on his grounder. John Mabry drove in Cameron with a long single, took second on the throw home and scored on Davis’ single to left.

In the fourth, Guillen initially stopped at third on Edgar Martinez’s single to right but came home when right fielder Salmon lost his grip on the ball before he could throw it toward the infield.

The Angels made it 6-2 in the fourth when Brad Fullmer doubled and scored on Bengie Molina’s single. They closed to within 6-4 in the fifth after scoring one run on an Anderson double and another on a Glaus groundout.

Glaus brought the crowd to its feet in the seventh when, with one on and one out, he lined a Giovanni Carrara pitch just foul deep down the left-field line. But the threat ended when Glaus struck out and Anderson was caught stealing.